Wake by Tim Winton (Reading to Write)

Hi. 

Like many of us, I'm finding the COVID-19 pandemic an incredibly anxious and trying time. I haven't posted much on the blog lately because it's felt like a low priority, especially as society seems to shrink up into a ball of hibernation around us. School doesn't feel like school at the moment, it's surreal and disassociative, and there's so much to unpack in what's happening but it just makes me feel mentally exhausted.

Anyway. 

Earlier this term my Year 11 Advanced English class read Tim Winton's short story 'Wake'. It's about 9 pages long and can be found in Scission, a collection of short stories first published in 1985. We approached the Reading to Write Common Module by looking at various short pieces as I wanted to broaden the scope of things that students may have read up until this point. This is what we looked at this term before everything unravelled:

• 'Introduction to Poetry' by Billy Collins (Poem)
• 'Brooklyn Snow' by Omar Musa (Poem)
• 'Sticks' by George Saunders (Flash Fiction)
• 'Wake' by Tim Winton (Short Story)
• 'B is For Bullshit', extract from The Lucy Family Alphabet by Judith Lucy (Discursive Writing)
• 'A Clean Well-Lighted Place' by Ernest Hemingway (Modernist Short Story)
• 'Our Trip' by Lydia Davis (Postmodern Short Story)
• '2 B R 0 2 B' by Kurt Vonnegut (Science Fiction Short Story)
• 'SJ' by Ellen Van Neerven (Short Story)

After reading 'Wake' we drilled down into some of the techniques and writing mechanics of Winton's piece. It's not anything revolutionary but I think the students found it useful to look at the story up-close in this way, and it would work well if you're currently teaching via Google Classroom or through some other online platform. The PowerPoint attached below covers motifs, use of semicolons, dialogue rules, and pathetic fallacy. Each slide comes with in-built discussion and questions that can be covered after the story has been read.

'Wake' - PPT (Click to Download)
And the story itself - 'Wake' by Tim Winton.

Hope it helps and best wishes to you all :)

Craft of Writing: Personification & Semicolon

In the last Craft of Writing post we looked at a mini-lesson focusing on hyperbaton. In support of an integrated approach to Module C, this entry outlines two further examples of writing craft that students can examine and hopefully use in their own writing alongside the previously mentioned rhetorical device. 

In Term 3 my class will be looking at the modes of writing mentioned in Module C's rubric, however, before we get to that point I'm hoping the students will pick up a few ideas that activate a deeper level of thinking when constructing language. Taking a few minutes at the start of each lesson with these mini-lessons represents an attempt to address a greater sense of student independence when writing.

Personification

What is it: A metaphorical figure of speech in which an idea, object or something else inanimate is given human attributes, or treated like a human character by the author of a text.

Examples: (All from Shakespeare's The Tempest, in support of Module A: Textual Conversations)

• "Time / goes upright with his carriage"
• "Patience / says it is past her cure"
• "Though the seas threaten, they are merciful"

Why use it:

• Allows for an elaboration on the nature of a abstract quality by comparing aspects of it with human behaviour or qualities.
• Adds increased meaning and depth to expressions.
• It allows us to reposition things from a human perspective to increase our understanding and develop a connection.

Quick Activity:

Think of an abstract quality (EG. Love, Truth, Death, Time, Hate, Anxiety) and use personification to illustrate a character's relationship with this quality.

Semicolon

What is it: A punctuation mark that allows for two related clauses to exist in the same sentences without a conjunction or connective word. Some clauses are closely related enough that they should be in the same sentence and the reader's understanding of one is improved by the other; this can sometimes rely on the use of a semicolon to work.

Examples:

• "There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself" - The Awakening, Kate Chopin
• "Harry had never been inside Filch's office before; it was a place most students avoided" - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling

Why use it:

• To connect an explanation to something mentioned in the previous clause.
• Used as a 'soft' full stop - showing that two sentences have a closer relationship than they would with a full stop.
• Two independent clauses in a compound sentence are typically joined by a connecrive term such as 'and', 'or', 'but', etc. A semicolon can sometimes take their place.
• Can be used completely differently as a 'super-comma' if commas are being used in a sentence for smaller separate items alongside larger ones, EG. "The tall, barky trees; the roaring, blood-crazed bears; and the rivers that had burst their muddy banks." 

Quick Activity: Write a paragraph in which describe the recipe for a meal. Ensure that you correctly include a semicolon. 

Here are both of these writing elements alongside hyperbaton on a sheet for student use:

• Writology Issue 2

Happy writing!